SUNDAY UPDATE:The Hillreports that Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers, a former state attorney general, considers Friday’s mass shooting an act of “domestic terrorism.” As you know, we agree:

Colorado Springs, Colo., Mayor John Suthers said in an interview Sunday that the fatal shooting spree at a Planned Parenthood clinic in his town appears to be an act of domestic terrorism.

“We have, Martha, something that occurs quite a bit. We have a person that’s pretty much off the grid and acting for whatever motivation, very hard to ferret out those folks,” Suthers told Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week.”

From President Barack Obama’s statement yesterday:

We don’t yet know what this particular gunman’s so-called motive was for shooting twelve people, or for terrorizing an entire community, when he opened fire with an assault weapon and took hostages at a Planned Parenthood center in Colorado. What we do know is that he killed a cop in the line of duty, along with two of the citizens that police officer was trying to protect. We know that law enforcement saved lives, as so many of them do every day, all across America. And we know that more Americans and their families had fear forced upon them.

This is not normal. We can’t let it become normal. If we truly care about this — if we’re going to offer up our thoughts and prayers again, for God knows how many times, with a truly clean conscience — then we have to do something about the easy accessibility of weapons of war on our streets to people who have no business wielding them. Period. Enough is enough.

May God bless Officer Garrett Swasey and the Americans he tried to save — and may He grant the rest of us the courage to do the same thing.

An updated statement from Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains acknowledges the terrorist’s motives as they are now understood:

“Today, we are learning that eyewitnesses confirm that the man who will be charged with the tragic and senseless shooting that resulted in the deaths of three people and injuries to nine others at Planned Parenthood’s health center in Colorado Springs was motivated by opposition to safe and legal abortion. This is an appalling act of violence targeting access to health care and terrorizing skilled and dedicated health care professionals.

“The safety of our patients and staff is our top priority. We have strong security measures in place and work closely with law enforcement agencies, and we also ensure that our doors are open to all people who need high-quality, compassionate health care. We believe the safety procedures we have in place helped reduce the number of lives lost and injuries during yesterday’s events.

“We’ve seen an alarming increase in hateful rhetoric and smear campaigns against abortion providers and patients over the last few months. That environment breeds acts of violence. Americans reject the hatred and vitriol that fueled this tragedy. We do not accept this environment as normal. We should not have to live in a world where accessing health care includes safe rooms and bullet-proof glass.

“We have a saying at Planned Parenthood: ‘These doors stay open.’ It means we don’t back down because of protestors, violent extremists, or anyone else. It means we are a safe, supportive, and welcoming environment for all people who need high quality reproductive health care. Today, in Colorado and across the country, Planned Parenthood’s doors are open and we will continue to provide compassionate health care to people who have trusted us and relied on us for generations.”

The details that have emerged on Friday’s shootings in Colorado Springs make it clear that the attack on civilians and law enforcement there was an act of terrorism. Tragically, this horrific attack against Planned Parenthood is not isolated to this instance. Since 1993, at least eight people– four doctors, two clinic employees, a security guard, and a clinic escort – have been murdered in the United States in incidents of anti-choice violence, including a doctor shot to death in 2009 while serving as an usher at a church. Since the politically-motivated campaign to defund Planned Parenthood began this summer with the release of a series of misleading and debunked videos, there have been four attacks on Planned Parenthood centers in the U.S. according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Those running for president and those of us in leadership roles in our country’s major political parties have an obligation to denounce these attacks and clearly say that violence and intimidation in the pursuit of ideology are not acceptable in America. Politicians who peddle lies, whether about Planned Parenthood or immigrants, and those who encourage roughing up Americans who have different opinions have a particular obligation and responsibility to denounce these acts of terror. In addition to the attacks on Planned Parenthood we’ve seen assaults on Hispanics, the shooting of Black Lives Matter protesters, and ugly shouts at campaign rallies that have gone unchallenged. No political gain is worth what this reckless, dangerous rhetoric is doing to our country, and it must come to an end.

In the Planned Parenthood case it’s especially troubling that there has been no meaningful reaction from Republican candidates and political leaders. This shameful silence is becoming a theme for Republicans, who are all too ready to denounce a three year old refugee but not acts committed by a domestic terrorist like what we saw Friday.

Robert Lewis Dear, a North Carolina native who was living in a trailer in Colorado, made statements to police Friday at the scene of the Colorado Springs clinic and in interviews that law enforcement sources described as rantings.

In one statement, made after the suspect was taken in for questioning, Dear said “no more baby parts” in reference to Planned Parenthood, according to two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the case. [Pols emphasis]

But the sources stressed that Dear said many things to law enforcement and the extent to which the “baby parts” remark played into any decision to target the Planned Parenthood office was not yet clear. He also mentioned President Barack Obama in statements.

They’re being awfully careful not to, you know, speculate down there in the conservative bastion of Colorado Springs aren’t they?

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SATURDAY UPDATE #2: 9NEWS reports the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood building has been cleared by police with no additional victims found. Thank goodness.

Sources tell 9Wants to Know that authorities have not yet entered the Planned Parenthood building. They believe additional fatalities are inside.

Sources also tell 9Wants to Know the shooter in Colorado Springs is Robert Lewis Dear, 57, of South Carolina. Police on Saturday morning said the “items” Dear left at the scene were secured, processed and are no longer a threat.

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UPDATE 5:45PM: New reports that at least one police officer is dead following Friday’s terrorist attack in Colorado Springs. One civilian also killed with many more in local hospitals.

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UPDATE 5:00PM: After an afternoon-long standoff, alleged Colorado Springs Planned Parenthoodshooter terrorist now in custody. A total of nine (eleven, news reports updating) transported to area hospitals including either four or five police officers. We’ll update once we know more.

“Our top priority is the safety of our patients and staff. Our hearts go out to everyone involved in this tragic situation. Planned Parenthood has strong security measures in place, works closely with law enforcement agencies, and has a very strong safety record. We don’t yet know the full circumstances and motives behind this criminal action, and we don’t yet know if Planned Parenthood was in fact the target of this attack. We share the concerns of many Americans that extremists are creating a poisonous environment that feeds domestic terrorism in this country. We will never back away from providing care in a safe, supportive environment that millions of people rely on and trust.”

Police are responding to reports of a shooting near Planned Parenthood on Centennial in Colorado Springs. Police are staging around the area and there are scanner reports of shots being fired and officers pinned down. People are asked to avoid the area. At least two officers have been shot. Officers are still trying to secure the area. The suspect is still shooting. [Pols emphasis]

Hope/pray as per your preference for a speedy end to this madness.

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UPDATE #2: Local media reporting the shopping center at Centennial and Fillmore in Colorado Springs is “in shelter in place status” as the active shooter situation unfolds at the nearby Planned Parenthood clinic.

The city’s fire department tweeted about the situation about 11:45 a.m. The branch is located at 3480 Centennial Blvd., just east of the Garden of the Gods. “The area is NOT secure,” police said in a tweet.

Scanner traffic indicated at least an officer was down and one patient was wounded at Elite Vision, located an adjacent building at 3470 Centennial Blvd. A later dispatch said at four were injured and an officer was heard requesting an ambulance. Another officer indicated wounded patients were being taken to Penrose Hospital, 2222 N. Nevada Ave. At least one victim was taken by stretcher to an ambulance shortly after noon. Three police officers with guns draw were pointing their weapons in the vicinity of Planned Parenthood…

Hard to say yet, he appears to be aiming away from Planned Parenthood. Hurray for guns for all!!!! Second white guy to shoot up the Springs this fall.

We were talking about the NRA opposing gun control even for suspected terrorists at Thanksgiving dinner. These suspected terrorists probably can't fly from Boston to Buffalo, but they can still buy guns.

I'm sorry too, for being so cynical, but that's a complete waste of hope and/or prayers and/or time …

… "speed end"?? Maybe if NRA Jesus raptures all his gun-loving followers into that heavenly shooting range in the sky, otherwise, not likely. Save your hopes and prayers and buy tissues for all the certain tears to come.

You can bet all these presidential pukes will be making donation appeals off of this shooting before the bodies are cold. The narrative will be that the liberal media will be stereotyping Christians and a $5,000 donation is needed for them to fight back for Christian liberty.

If it turns out the gunman is a Christian, we still get to condemn the violent religion that underlays his bankrupt ideology, right? And then bar entry to and surveil the religious meeting places of everyone who shares his faith.

We don't know exactly what this is about yet but he ceratinly could be someone who thinks of himself and calls himself a Christian. Plenty of violence has been perpetrated in the name of Christianity. The Crusades. The Inquistion. Torture and burning of witches and heretics. Forced conversion of people of other cultures. For most of its history Christianity has hardly been all love beads and live and let live.

Two victims ran into the bank from Planned Parenthood, so that bastion of reliable news and information Breitbart said it was a bank robbery. That's the right wing misinformation pipeline for you. Must be where La Roupe gets her reporting. Not the Co Spgs Sheriff Dept spokeswoman who said that Planned Parenthood was definitely the target.

I have to wonder why it is so important for Republicans to try and deceive anyone who will believe them that it was just an ordinary homicidal robbery instead of a terrorist assault on an organization that has been vilified by them.

Colorado Springs Republicans danced the same dance when the Springs NAACP was bombed by a racist.

They kept trying to say that the barbershop or the accountant next door were the targets. Or that the whole thing was a hoax. Pick your spin.

The bomber terrorist (thanks, Pols) was quite clear about which shop he was targeting at the time, although he tried to walk it back later and claim that he was avenging himself on the accountant who hadn't had an office there for five years. Because "hate crimes" get stiffer sentences than run-of-the-mill arson.

This is what they do. If a white guy carrying an assault rifle targets an abortion clinic or random people on the street or a mosque, automatically he is presumed to be an innocent "shooter". Funny how that works.

Misspoke and misinformed seem to be the primary excuse by Republicans. Trump uses it all the time. No surprises there. You have to look and see what they usually fall for. Fake videos, fake news reports, fake crisis (Syrian refugees but not Israeli/Palestinians on the horizon). What they don't fall for is science stuff like Climate Change or Evolution. No wonder people think they live in a separate reality.

That ain’t saying much. gaf. This went in the wrong box. It’s pertaining to Rep. Roupe. Checking in here is the first I’ve heard of this ordeal. We weren’t shopping today, just enjoying a day together…until now

My sister lives very, very near the Planned Parenthood Clinic in west Co Spgs, so I was watching the whole thing as best I could. When the feed from the local CBS channel kept blipping out (not used to the amount of traffic they were getting, I'm sure) I went to Fox 21 (gagging slightly in my mouth). High-larious. They reported that 115 police officers were at the scene. Then they must have gotten calls from the nanny pants audience that they have helped to create, so they reported that there were other cops still protecting the rest of the city of Colorado Springs. No need to worry that the whole town had been abandoned by the cops. Feed their fears, then you have to deal with the audience being, ya know, fearful.

That's true, there were 115 officers on the scene, but you have to remember that this is a combination of City of Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado Bureau of Investigation, CU-Colorado Springs, FBI, ATF and just about every other three-digit law enforcement group you want to think of. It wasn't just the city cops there.

* Shooter had a home in Hartsel, so he wasn't strictly out of state. It has been closed off for investigation.

* Shooter had placed propane tanks around the parking lot and was shooting at them.

* Shooter had apparently booby-trapped his car with explosives as well.

* Mayor Suthers says the suspect has been interviewed; no motive has been announced, but Suthers says we might infer something from the location of the shooting… Translation: I don't want to say it, but this was about someone's radical religious beliefs driving him to violence.

As to the additional fatalities inside the Planned Parenthood, according to PP all of their employees have been accounted for and safe. So whomever is still in the building is likely patients, or their family/friends.

I think the Post's live blog said the facility had been cleared, and they have an article saying it was searched this morning. No additional casualties reported so far today, so perhaps it's not going to get any worse.

Republicans prosper by fomenting and encouraging radicals and reactionaries who are all too prone to believe that party's hysterics and calculated lies about government, the environment, reproductive rights, etc. This country will never rise above the poisonous politics that now contaminate its social dialogue unless the Republicans are resoundingly defeated in every election until it moderates itself.

The man who committed the three murders in Colorado Springs yesterday was, there is little doubt, a Republican, driven to his foul deeds by Republican lies about Planned Parenthood and Republican diatribes against a woman's constitutional freedom to decide whether to bear a child. The Republican party does, therefore, bear some responsibility for his actions. So does every Republican politician, at any level of government, who encourages, condones, or ignores the dangerous, dishonest, despicable rhetoric and philosophy that is constantly spewed by that party's minions and elected officials.

Shame on you, Republicans. Shame on you for the violence that you have, at minimum, egged on.

"Shame on you, Republicans…………" And shame on you for tarring an entire party and all its members without having any facts upon which to base your accusations.

Like, you know without a doubt that the suspect is a registered Republican and his sole purpose is to be another Eric Rudolph or the dudes that assassinated Drs. Tiller and Slypian?

There is no doubt in my mind that my party has a lot of work to do to get away from the religious jihads being perpetrated by radical fundamentalist Christians. That still doesn't condone your blanket condemnation. C.H.B.

So. And I am just guessing here. Your clear rejection of the concept of guilt by association…means that you will equally be advocating among your pants-pissing compatriots that all Syrian refugees should not be tarred by the same brush vis-a-vis the too-recent atrocities in Paris (conducted largely, if not entirely, by native-born Europeans)?

If you've been reading CHB's stuff you wouldn't have to ask that question. CHB has trouble accepting that wackos and wacko panderers are now the norm among elected Republicans (see the most popular candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, what’s up with every majority Repubican legislative body, etc.) but he is no wacko himself. Just in deep denial about what’s happened within his party.

At the state level, party identification matters as far as voting restrictions and redistricting, which tend to be perpetuated to keep Republican state legislatures in power, leading often to policy based on posturing.

At our local level, school board and commissioner elections matter, as we saw in Jeffco, Pueblo, and with the El Paso County Commissioners.

But on this blog, party identification doesn't matter. Or rather, having a diversity of viewpoints in a conversation is a positive thing, if done respectfully.

I'd rather have relatively sane Republicans and unaffiliated voters than a reluctant "convert" to the Democratic party. Republican36 is one such "convert", and is a respected contributor on this forum.

Labels matter, but also contribute to intellectual laziness. Rather than delve deeply into actual policy, and how stuff gets paid for, people just go into knee-jerk support or denial based on the party label. And yes, that does happen regardless of professed affiliation.

So please show me the majority Republican legislative bodies, state or naional that support things like choice, taking action on climate change, oppose voter suppression legislation, support environmental protection legislation? The Republican presidential candidates who support any of those things. As I've clarified many times I'm not talking about every registered Republican but about elected Republicans and what we can always expect from every single Republican majority legislative body. That's where the rubber hits the road. That's why nobody who doesn't support the 21st century Republican agenda as expressed by the overwhelming majority of Republicans in office, presidential candidates, and every single Republican majority legisative body at every level should never contribute to those majorities and to increasing the number of Republican Governors or the possibility of a Republican President with veto and executive order power and the power to appoint Supreme Court justices by voting for any Republican because they all strengthen the majorities and executive forces behind terrible policy. And it’s hardly a plus that only Cruz has had the decency to to even take notice of this tragedy.

Nope, both Bernie and Hilary beat him to it. You meant, only Republican candidate to do any kind of message.

And, sorry, Mama, labels do matter. As for tax and spend, my personal taxes doubled under the reign of St. Ronnie the Ray-gun and have never gone down. Coors got a 90% tax break from the inadequate shrub Bush the second, but small business, nope, scarcely a dime. The tiny little break I got recently was sucked by up the sequester, which continues to this day.

I love me some Republican 36 in a totally on line, have yet to meet him in person kind of way.

Of course it is a liberal blog. To get back on topic, when we obsess, for example,about the political affiliation of the Planned Parenthood shooter,we play into the hands of the right wing spinmeisters. My own obsession is truth and fact-finding; I found that the guy was unaffiliated.

We're better off if we accept that the terrorist was unaffiliated politically, but that he listened to the "hateful rhetoric" and fake videos put out by those same right wing spinmeisters. I'm not stupid – you don't really need to point out that most of those right wing sites are Republican- affiliated, and that their propaganda is spread further by Republican candidates.

Those same Republican candidates are focused on the messenger – Trump just called Dear a "maniac" on Meet the Press. Huckabee called him a "terrorist". Neither one owns up to spreading the fake baby-body-parts-selling meme.

In this case, I think it's better to focus on the message that led to this horrific act, rather than the messenger.

Silly? Whatever. I think your pearl-clutching over large-scale guilt-by-association is silly, given recent history. Sure it sucks, but it sucks a lot more for some than for others. And your lot (as they so often are) are on the privileged end of this particular turd souffle.

Good luck with that reclamation project, CHB. I'm reminded of Christie Todd Whitman's autobio, "It's My Party, Too." Well, it may have been once upon a time, but not so any more.

You'd be better off starting a new secular Conservative Party adhering to Barry Goldwater's principles (e.g., keep government out of my wallet and out of my bedroom). Let the religious nuts keep the current GOP. They could rename it "The Party of God" although Hezbollah may bring a trade name violation lawsuit.

The second, gleefully repeating an unconfirmed report that Robert Lewis Dear, the alleged shooter, "identified as a woman" because coloradovoterinfo, a private site, has him listed as such. Coloradovotersinfo has been known to make errors. Dear's voter record, a screenshot of which has been going around on all the rightie sites has been removed from coloradovotersinfo.

So Dear may be registered as unaffiliated. He may even "identify as a woman". Chaps will have fun with that one, if confirmed. I think it unlikely, as someone with a full beard would tend to emphasize their masculine side. However, it doesn't take away from the fact that he clearly targeted Planned Parenthood – he was raving about "baby body parts" which was the predominant tea party narrative for the last few months. He killed three people, including a police officer, and tried to kill many more. The guilty parties are those who fabricated the Planned Parenthood videos, and propagated the lies that PP was "selling baby body parts".

The right wing spin machine created this latest tragic massacre, whether or not they ever have the guts to own it.

Confirmed from downloadable voter record (coloradovoters info, #7 downloadable zip file) . Open the file with excel, or just do a search for dear, robert lewis,in the txt file, and you will find the same info. He was registered as unaffiliated, and is listed as female. I just don't think it means what the right wing thinks it means.

Right Wing: "He self identified as a female, so it's Obama's fault for encouraging the LGBTQ community by giving them rights and things, just because of the Constitution (which we only like for guns and more guns) and the Supreme Court (which we only like when they side with us for more and more money to spend buying elections)–so, see we knew it all along, it's Obama's fault!!!!"

They are, no doubt, under strict orders from their Borg overlord financial backers to stand down until it is determined that this, like all other acts of right-wing domestic terrorism committed by angry middle-aged white male Christianist gun fetishists, has "blown over"…

But of course! Far be it from them and their ilk ever to politicize any tragic event for gain and advantage. Heaven forbid! Good Christians they are, one and all.

But getting back to reality, before this is all over, the radical right will have painted this as being "all Obama's fault," and the shooter will turn out to have been a five-year-old Muslim Syrian refugee, freshly escaped from Super Max, as of course all domestically detained non-Christian terrorists will do at some point.

Indubitably. And possibly the hemlines of Sasha's and Malia's dresses as well.

Anything at all under the sun is fair game to them, when the goals are A) to avoid their obvious responsibility for such vile and utterly predictable acts by their minions, and B) to demonize that 'upitee kenyin mooslum darky' illegally occupying their White(s only) House.

Michelle Obama's bangs that had to go because they were, er, too. . . . something or other. Why, of course, that's the real reason behind the attack. There's a hair salon near the Planned Parenthood clinic. So it was Michelle's vanishing bangs.

One day after Robert Lewis Dear allegedly opened fire at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado, killing three and injuring nine others, the Colorado Fraternal Order of Police issued a statement calling critics “race baiting morons” and “delusional ignorant fools.” The statement, posted on the police union’s Facebook page, came in response to outrage over officers’ treatment of white killers like Dear, who was handcuffed and taken into custody alive after killing a cop.

“In yesterday’s heroic police action the shooter was given the opportunity to surrender. The choice to live or die was his. He chose to live, laid down his weapon, complied with all commands and peacefully surrendered,” the statement reads. “What the race baiting morons who believe that he was spared because he was white fail to acknowledge is that just this year alone there have been numerous shootings of police officers where the suspects were taken into custody. Many of those suspects were persons of color.”

The worst part of all of this, for those not directly affected, will be seeing those mug shots staring back at us from newspapers and television screens for at least the next 2 years. It'll be the cinema massacre all over again. And can’t one just see LOSER in flashing red letters overlaid on those photos?